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Jul 1, 2014

USE SMALL ACTIONS TO GET BIG RESULTS

By Ivan Misner & Vince Vigneri

When it comes to creating relationships with other
companies, take a long-term approach.

Recently speaking to a friend of mine who's a partner in an international
consulting and training company, we discovered we had a mutual
acquaintance--a bestselling author and fairly well-known speaker.

In
our discussion, we found out he'd contacted each of us individually to see if
there were any possibilities for some type of strategic alliance with his
company and each of our own, individually. We were both open to the possibility
but couldn't see an immediate and dramatic way our companies could link with
his and undertake any specific projects at that time. We were both a bit amused
to then discover that we were summarily "dropped" from his radar
after that.

We
sensed he was looking for that one big alliance that would help his company
soar to the next level. Ironically, we'd had the same type of phone call with
each other just 18 months earlier. We had come basically to the same
conclusion: There was nothing on a grand scale that we could do together at
that moment. The difference, however, was the rest of the story.

You
see, we agreed to stay in touch, and we did. We connected several times over
the year and met in person as well. During that time, we gradually found some
simple ways to help each other and slowly enhanced the relationship. This was a
sharp contrast from the third party we'd talked to individually. We both felt
that when this person didn't see any big payoff, we became persona non grata
with him. On the other hand, the two of us found ways to help each other
gradually and still continue to build our relationship.

We
came to the conclusion that most people who are successful at networking and
creating strong strategic alliances view the process as a series of small
actions taken with many people to create a long-term positive growth for their
companies. The process is more of a marathon than a sprint. Throughout the
race, you form alliances and help each other in what may seem like little ways
over the long haul, but small actions over time can create big results.

Here's
another real-life example of a scenario in which two companies reached out to
me and my company to try to achieve a strategic alliance:

The
first company, which shall remain nameless on the grounds that it likes to slam
folks it doesn't approve of in the media, contacted me. Its introduction was
akin to "Glad to meet you--let's get married!" I really got the sense
from this company that it wanted to give me the privilege of sharing my entire
database of contacts with it based on who it was and how amazing it would be
for me to even say I had stood in its shadow. Get the picture?

When
I explained our corporate philosophy and my own personal belief system that
deepening a business alliance and building a relationship with a business
partner took time and effort before getting to the "let's get
married" stage, this company abruptly ended the call and--I imagine--moved
on down its computer-generated list of businesses to call.

By
contrast, here's how a second organization in the same business approached the
same issue: The owner himself contacted me and started the conversation by
asking what our corporate plans were. I shared with him what our overall goal
for growth was over the next five years. The next statement from him was,
"We want to help you achieve that!"

From
there it went from "Glad to meet you" to "Let's get to know each
other better." He then shared with me that he had ideas that could help us
achieve our corporate goal and help our members perform better in business at
the same time.

When
I explained, as I had with Company X, that our philosophy as a networking
organization was one of mutual cooperation and that our belief was that
anything really of value to either of us would take time, he completely got it.

Our
relationship has developed organically, and we now have a strong strategic
alliance with the organization based on getting to know each other and working
with each other gradually.

I'm
not sure how Company X is faring; I don't hear so much about their program
anymore. I wonder why.

Looking
back over two decades of building an international company, I can clearly see
that no one person or company brought something to the table that launched my
company to the next level. Instead, it was the cumulative effect of many
people, many strategic alliances and many well-nurtured relationships that over
time catapulted my business higher than ever imagined in the early days. Each
contact, each opportunity to reach out to each other and each
mutually-beneficial activity served as just one more spoke in the wheel as we
rolled up the hill toward success.